It was a rough start to the new year for Hutsonville-Palestine's boys' basketball team.

The Tigers, coming off a fifth-place finish at the Tri-County Holiday Tournament, opened the 2019 portion of their schedule at home Wednesday night (Jan. 2), but could not keep pace with visiting Lawrenceville and suffered a 68-45 loss in the non-conference contest.

Hutsonville-Palestine started strong, building a 9-4 lead in the first three and a half minutes and still led by five late in the opening period before a pair of Lawrenceville free throws trimmed the Tigers' lead to 14-11 after the first eight minutes.

The second quarter was a whole different story. Lawrenceville, who was without two of their starters due to injuries, slapped on a full-court press that gave Hutsonville-Palestine fits. The Tigers turned the ball over six times in the period and made just two of their nine field goal attempts. Meanwhile, Lawrenceville clicked for 26 points in the period, outscoring Hutsonville-Palestine 26-10 in the quarter to take a 37-24 lead at halftime. The last lead for the Tigers came after a three-pointer by Evan Newlin at the 6:53 mark, but Lawrenceville responded by scoring the next 10 points and 16 of the next 20 to take the lead for good.

Hutsonville-Palestine fell behind by as many as 17 early in the third quarter, but pulled to within 44-32 with 2:26 remaining after baskets by Gary Higginbotham and Newlin. However, Lawrenceville's Cale Powell would score seven points in just over a minute to push the lead to 51-32 and the Indians held a 53-35 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

Lawrenceville then outscored Hutsonville-Palestine 15-10 in the fourth quarter to seal the win. The margin grew as large as 24 early in the final period, while the Tigers got as close as 19 before a couple of late Lawrenceville baskets put it at the final 23-point margin.

Simply put, Lawrenceville just made more shots than the Tigers. The Indians hit 28-52 field goal attempts (54 percent), which included a 24-35 performance from two-point range (69 percent) and a 4-17 effort from three-point range (24 percent). Meanwhile, Hutsonville-Palestine was 17-44 from the floor (39 percent), including 14-29 from inside the arc (48 percent) and 3-15 from long distance (20 percent). Each team hit eight free throws, while Lawrenceville making 8-10 attempts (80 percent) and Hutsonville-Palestine hitting 8-13 foul shots (62 percent).

The Tigers also struggled taking care of the ball, as they committed 20 turnovers, while Lawrenceville had just 11 miscues.

Jerry Gower led Hutsonville-Palestine with 13 points and four rebounds, while Newlin posted 12 points, five rebounds, two assists and one steal. Zeke Nave contributed 10 points, nine rebounds, one assist and one steal, Trent Matthews collected five points and six rebounds, Dylan Salee tossed in three points and Higginbotham totaled two points, two assists, one rebound, one steal and one blocked shot.

Powell led Lawrenceville with 15 points, three assists, one rebound and one steal, while Jordan Jones posted 13 points, five rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocked shots and R.J. Nelms contributed 11 points, six rebounds, three blocked shots and two assists.

Hutsonville-Palestine also lost the junior varsity game 57-27.

Kainen Pettigrew led Hutsonville-Palestine with seven points, while Kegan Cooper and Salee each scored six.

Hutsonville-Palestine head coach Mike Ray declined to comment after the game.

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